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November 28 A Secular Message of Hope and LoveThanksgiving is not a holiday we celebrate in my country - we do similar things during Christmas (minus the pumpkin pie). But this is one of my favorite holidays because everybody can celebrate regardless of religion. The idea that religion has the monopoly of virtue and goodness is prevalent in the US and could not be more wrong. One has to forget thousands of years of violence and the very foundation of the country to understand secular, non-religious people are often on the more loving, human side of the issues.
I hope you enjoy the clip below. This is one of my favorite messages of hope and gratitude I've seen this year
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! November 20 CommunicationAh, the joy of well coordinated team work...
I am trying to compile a set of videos that can explain the value of certain aspects of management. Like "process", for instance:
November 09 The Front Fell OffThis is *not* Monty Python, this is a real senator from Australia. What are the odds he is on the oil company payroll?
Ah, integrity...
November 08 And Obama Will Likely Be PresidentIt is amazing that a mixed race man was elected American president. It is more amazing that he did so with not the record turnout pundits predicted, but with the same turnout of the last presidential election. He won not only with the black vote, but with votes from all minorities, including Latinos, as well as women and moderates. I was growing tired of the TV saying Latinos would not vote for a black candidate. Being accused of racism by the American media has its entertainment value, but gets old fast. I would like to find a count of how many new black anchors, pundits and guests showed up after Obama became candidate versus in 2004.
The American electoral system has a "stupidity clause" called Electoral College. When the country was formed no one was sure this democracy thing would work. So they created a system were a special elector was selected to represent a particular region. Every State in the United States is divided in such regions and each region has a vote. This is supposed to be proportional to the population, but as people move around some discrepancies might occur. For that very reason George W. Bush was elected president having lost the popular vote. This special elector is not that region's congressman or senator, and that person is free to vote any way they feel like, even ignoring the populous vote.
If you think an elected representative would not be crazy enough to ignore the population vote, think again. All but two States in the United States have a clause on their constitution commonly called the "winner takes all" clause. Whatever presidential candidate wins most regions in the state receive the vote of all Electoral College members from that State. They literally ignore the popular vote on their districts and vote with the majority of districts. That is why a 6% margin on the popular vote will likely grant Obama a 3 to 1 Electoral College win.
If the Electoral College behaves as expected and vote for Obama, there are always the crazies. During this campaign two groups of people were arrested accused of plotting to kill him. Those were the ones caught. America has a longer than usual list of presidents killed or getting pretty close to get killed so I would be wearing a bullet proof vest from now on if I were Obama. And obeying the secret service big time.
Since I am from Brazil, I still remember Tancredo Neves. After a long lasting military dictatorship, we had an election following a similar Electoral College system. The government right wing candidate lost the vote - after a lot of civil unrest - to a left leaning candidate. Tancredo Neves was the man, but he never took office. After the election and before he took the oath, he needed diverticulitis surgery. What should have been a fairly safe surgery, but turned into a very, very suspicious hospital infection and slow and painful death. His vice-president candidate was more of a center to right wing person and the only claim he can make was that the country transitioned to democracy without further bloodshed. And of course his mustache was pretty thick. So I hope Obama eats right and stay away from surgery until the transition is done.
If everything goes right, Obama will have what CNN called "the inbox from hell" waiting for him. I hope we all give him some time to act. A couple of posts ago I wrote about the things I liked about the Bush administration. Now if anyone compares what he inherited with what he leaves behind, by all measurable criteria he did his best to destroy this country. Some think he did on purpose, I don't. I think he tried his best and really believed on his fundamentalist belief on the market and evangelical faith. As any other fundamentalist, he failed. Politics is the art of the possible and compromise, and you can see how hard it is by looking at the appearance of the presidents when they take office and when they leave. Bush looks like Barney's ass at this point.
Presidents should not learn on the job, and should not be people that you want to have a beer with. They should be smarter, more skilled, with greater leadership, more patient, with better judgment and more intelligent than average. Above all they should have a combination of skills that allows them to improve the country during their tenure - for everyone. Not some type of "trickle down" improvement where you help your buddies or party members, but everybody. As Obama put it quite well, "there is no red state or blue state, but the United States".
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